This is one of those which came first things, the chicken or the egg. Is it “my faith is such that I believe” or is it “I believe because I have faith.” As a Christian have you been persuaded to believe the truths of religion and from that comes a certainty which becomes your faith? Paul I am sure found that faith was something you acquired and there would be events in our lives that often persuaded us to take that road of faith. Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39 …”For I am persuaded , that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present , nor things to come ,Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Webster puts it this way, “To believe in, is to hold as the object of faith. “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.” To believe on, is to trust, to place full confidence in, to rest upon with faith.” You see you can find a little religion even in the dictionary.

In theology, to believe sometimes expresses a mere assent of the understanding to the truths of the gospel; as in the case of Simon. When Simon saw the spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people he wanted to “buy that power.” Could it be that Websters got it right? ” To believe on, is to trust, to place full confidence in, to rest upon with faith.” Faith begins when we are able to trust, to place full confidence in, and to rest upon the certainty of God’s promises to us.

I have always wanted to write and the last couple of years WordPress has given me that opportunity. I have no degree on the wall from any school of journalistic note and spelling and grammar are certainty not my strong points. I would have to say that Mr. Gates has been my saving grace and enthusiastic supporter. I should also thank the folks at Dell and the many support programs that allow me to write anything. It has been said that good writers write about things they know about, I have however never let that hold me back. I have written a book, a western. I like to think of it as a poor man’s Lonesome Dove. You won’t find it in the stores, never got that far but it is the first thing I ever started that I finished and for that reason I think it is a good read.

I have changed the blog name and boldly decided to once again write about something I don’t know about, well not as much as I should. My generation, I will be 70 this summer, has seen a great deal of change as did my parents. I could have said the world is changing but everyone says that and it is a fact that proves itself each time a new day begins. So what’s the hook here? The Gospel…for over 2000 years the content of the message has not changed. It has been preached, studied and debated and written in many different translations but the content has never changed. I think maybe because you cannot rewrite the truth. You see the truth is that to believe is as Mr. Webster says….

“In popular use and familiar discourse, to believe often expresses an opinion in a vague manner, without a very exact estimate of evidence, noting a mere preponderance of opinion, and is nearly equivalent to think or suppose..”

I hope you will join me as I move on from believing to faith through “a layman’s view of the Gospel”